Assignment: Learn and Teach Folk Knowledge

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First, learning to crochet was nerve wracking

Last year I found myself in the odd position of being a chaperone at girls' camp up in Heber valley. I think there was one man up there for every forty girls, and the first thing I realized was that all of these girls and women certainly knew how to camp and had little to do but offer to carry heavy things. So I soon learned I just needed to chill out and enjoy the woods.

That's when Monica gave me the yarn. Maybe she was just feeling sorry for me, but before I knew it I had a crochet needle in hand and was told that those orphans in Haiti were going to get a hat that I had personally created. Teenage girls and their leaders would check in on me, gently showing me how to hold the yarn, how to count, and how to pull the thing out and start all over. I felt a bit intimidated, and I felt pressure from all these females who seemed to know instinctively how to do this kind of handiwork. But I started to get the hang of it, and when suddenly a camp event left me isolated at the picnic table with half of a Haitian knit cap, I was delighted that I could keep crocheting and terrified that I wouldn't know how to move to the next step. 

..and then it was fun

I learned some respect for that craft, and also for the way that these girls and women taught me. I didn't get an instruction manual or a training video. I got a crochet hook and a command to start. And I got a lot of intermittent advice from the girls who had done their caps the day before. I ended up feeling like this whole crochet thing was something fun, creative, and interesting -- in part because of how learning this skill created opportunities for interacting with interesting people.

This encounter made me realize that folk knowledge is often something that is transmitted piecemeal and casually while people are busy doing other things. I also realized that "experts" can simply be people who have learned to do something just hours before they then teach it to you.  School formalizes things and raises expectations about credentials and expertise. You wouldn't sign up for a class in how to crochet if you found out the teacher only learned how to crochet the day before you showed up for class. And yet that's how I learned, and it was enough -- at least for the Haitian that got my cute little knit cap.

This is my example of learning folk knowledge. As we spend one more week in our unit on folk knowledge, we want all of our students to do two activities that involve learning and teaching in that manner.

Assignment: Learn and Teach Folk Knowledge

Part One: Learn from an expert 

The purpose of this part of the assignment is not simply to learn a new skill, but to do so outside of traditional schooling, book-learning, or internet research and then to reflect on and document that process.

1. Find an expert to teach you a skill.
   Consulting the various types of folk knowledge listed elsewhere ("Unit One: Folk Knowledge"; "Domestic Folk Knowledge"), find someone who would be willing to demonstrate their knowledge to you in one of these areas.
   --Do not choose a skill that could simply be communicated through language alone; this needs to be something that requires personal demonstration and interacting with the physical and material world.
   --Choose a skill that is truly outside of your own expertise and comfort zone. If you are great at sewing, don't find a seamstress to teach you a new pattern. If you are already an athlete, don't ask someone to help you perfect an existing ability.
2. Watch and learn.
   Make an appointment with your chosen expert for an on site, in person meeting where they will teach you. 
3. Document your learning experience
   Write up your experience on your blog (use a photo, too, if possible).  Use the experience narrated above as a model in your approach.

Part Two: Teach others

The purpose of this part of the assignment is for you to understand the transmission of folk knowledge from the point of view of someone who is teaching -- and to reflect on on that process.

1. Inventory your skills
   Make a list of types of knowledge that you could coach others about (Once again, please exclude anything you could teach merely through language. Select skills that require personal, material, and physical components). This list should appear as part of your blog post writing up this experience.
2. Offer your skills
   Find someone interested in getting a brief, personal tutorial from you in one of your skills. While we do not object to you imposing upon roommates or fellow class members, we would be very interested to see some students reaching beyond to people outside of those familiar circles. Can you teach your skill to a child, an elderly person, a non-college student, or even a stranger?
3. Document your teaching experience.
   Write up your experience on your blog (use a photo, too, if possible).

The two blog posts required for this assignment are in addition to your regular, once-weekly post (which, of course, will also have a historical component not required for these). Post about the first part by the end of Wednesday (9/14) and about the second by the end of Friday (9/16).